Unfortunately for fans of “freak show fights”, we hardly ever get any ridiculous mismatches in MMA anymore. Athletic commissions have all but done away with them.
If any company out there is capable of reviving such a style of fight promoting however, it is Rizin FC. The promotion is currently in the middle of their open weight grand prix tournament. The big fight upcoming in this throwback style tourney, will involve two big stars who used to compete in such tournaments regularly: Mirko “Cro Crop” Filipovich and Wanderlei Silva.
Since the promotion does not need approval from an athletic commission to book a fight (as their shows are run in Japan), future Rizin events very well could have the same amount of mismatched fights as Pride used to. So long as the company doesn’t go under that is.
Here are the top 8 mismatches in MMA history…
8. Royce Gracie vs Akebono
By the time of this fight, December 31st 2004, some of Royce Gracie’s aura had started to wear off. Ken Shamrock had already proven at UFC 5 that Royce was not the magical submission guru that he appeared to be in UFCs 1 thru 4. Not only that but Royce had been officially defeated for the first time in his career in the Pride Grand Prix finals in 2000, losing to Sakuraba.
But the name Royce Gracie still loomed larger than the sport itself to the casual fan at this time, and public interest in seeing him fight was still high. This bout was the first time that Royce would ever compete outside of Pride or the UFC, when he took on sumo wrestler Akebono Taro for the K-1 promotion.
The weight disparity in this bout was huge, possibly the greatest of all time. Akebono is listed at being 550lbs, while Royce is around 175lbs, a difference of 375lbs between the two of them. The skill disparity between them was far greater however. Akebono was no match for Gracie, who submitted the sumo champ in just over two minutes.
